select * from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ENGINES where ENGINE="ARIA"; ENGINE SUPPORT COMMENT TRANSACTIONS XA SAVEPOINTS Aria YES Crash-safe tables with MyISAM heritage. Used for internal temporary tables and privilege tables NO NO NO set global default_storage_engine=aria; set session default_storage_engine=aria; drop table if exists t1; SET SQL_WARNINGS=1; CREATE TABLE t1 ( a VARCHAR(800),KEY(a) ) ENGINE=Aria DEFAULT CHARACTER SET latin1; INSERT INTO t1 VALUES (REPEAT('abc ',200)), (REPEAT('def ',200)), (REPEAT('ghi ',200)), (REPEAT('jkl ',200)); INSERT INTO t1 SELECT * FROM t1; CHECK TABLE t1; Table Op Msg_type Msg_text test.t1 check status OK SET STATEMENT sql_mode = 'NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION' FOR ALTER TABLE t1 MODIFY a VARCHAR(800) CHARSET `ucs2`; CHECK TABLE t1; Table Op Msg_type Msg_text test.t1 check status OK SHOW CREATE table t1; Table Create Table t1 CREATE TABLE `t1` ( `a` varchar(800) CHARACTER SET ucs2 DEFAULT NULL, KEY `a` (`a`) ) ENGINE=Aria DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 PAGE_CHECKSUM=1 DROP TABLE t1; CREATE TABLE t1 (a VARCHAR(1200),KEY(a)) ENGINE=Aria CHARACTER SET ucs2; Warnings: Note 1071 Specified key was too long; max key length is 2000 bytes INSERT INTO t1 VALUES (REPEAT('abc ',200)); CHECK TABLE t1; Table Op Msg_type Msg_text test.t1 check status OK DROP TABLE t1; # End of 5.2 tests